Germany may help in Ganga clean-up

NEW DELHI: Germany is looking at providing technical and financial support for Ganga rejuvenation, a German official said. "We are now in the phase where we are going to see how we are going to assist the Indian government in this important endeavour," Heiko Warnken, head of Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany, said on Thursday.

"We have cleaned the river Rhine in Germany," he said. On how much funds may be required to clean and rejuvenate Ganga, he said it was too early to say. Asked whether there could be a timeline for Ganga clean-up considering its 2,500-km stretch, he said, "Rhine is also a long river which comes from Switzerland to Germany. It took almost 10 years to clean the river."